


You Started as a Stranger

by ronnings



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Lawyer Lucy, Lucy is trying to figure out who she is (wink wink), Slow Burn, but not too slow, cat is such a mother hen, plenty of superlane moments i swear, the deo still will have a director lane dont worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-09-15 11:16:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9232466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronnings/pseuds/ronnings
Summary: Kara and Lucy meet at CatCo when Kara gives Lucy a tour.  Kara is Kara so she invited Lucy to lunch with the boys and the ladies become fast friends.  Ultimately Lucy is in National City to find herself and she will.





	1. The World Tour

Lucy strides into Cat’s office with confidence, shoulders pushed back, and in her suit, she feels as protected and powerful as she does in her uniform, well almost, she thinks. Once she has reached Cat’s desk she pulls herself from her thoughts enough to see that Cat is turned away from her in her office chair, and Lucy resists the urge to roll her eyes, maybe Cat Grant is as awful as Lois had told her. Cat turns around, pressing her lips into a thin line, scrutinizing her newest employee. Of course, Cat knows that Lucy was Lois Lane’s kid sister. Most people would think that a Lane could never get a job with Cat Grant, but Cat would only hire the best, and there was no arguing that Little Lane was an excellent lawyer, after all, she had gone to Harvard. However, she has to make sure that Lucy knows exactly how things at CatCo were done.

“Lucy, thank you for coming in, I want you to get a chance to see the building briefly before you start working here, so Kiera will show you to your office as well as explain the basics of running a media empire. She is . . . not entirely incompetent at her job, so I would like her back sooner rather than later.” Cat paused for a moment before drawing a breath and exclaiming, “KIERA!” Cat gave a slight smirk as Kara rushed in, a little too fast for a normal person.

Opening the door, and briskly approaching Ms. Grant’s desk, Kara glances quickly at the newcomer. Kara quickly notes that the new girl was quite pretty, and holds herself with pride, a stance that Kara knows isn’t far removed from what she looks like in her suit when she is Supergirl, and not just Cat Grant’s assistant. After finishing her thought, she stops in her tracks and addresses Ms. Grant, “Yes, Ms. Grant?” During this brief second, Lucy quickly examines the assistant, Kiera. Although, her name could be something entirely different if what Lois says is true. Kiera, or whatever her name is, is dressed in bright colors and Lucy instantly assumes that was a common occurrence for the beautiful blonde. Of course, that was merely a fact that Lucy observes, something she had been trained to do. Cat seems to think about her words for a moment, before nodding and giving Kara her directions. 

“Kiera, I need you to show Miss Lane to her office, and give her a bit of a tour while you’re at it.” Cat instructs and then diverts her attention down to the hefty pile of paperwork she would need to tackle. Today would be a long day, especially if Kara was going to be unavailable during part of it. 

“Yes, Ms. Grant.” Kara turns towards the door and exited the office, feeling rather than hearing Lucy follow her. Kara stops at her own desk before turning to the younger Lane, “So this is my desk, I’m Cat’s assistant,” Kara fidgets with her fingers before rambling on, “well, I guess you would have uh, known that already, but just in case . . . you know where to find me.” Lucy observes the taller girl before easing her posture and extending her hand.

“I’m Lucy, Lucy Lane.” Kara looks down at Lucy and smiles, remembering the bits of information she had heard about her from Kal-El. They shake hands and Kara takes special care not to accidentally break the gorgeous woman’s hand. Lucy then chuckles slightly as she asks, “And you are? I would say you’re Kiera, but I think Ms. Grant may be prone to never calling her employees by their real names.” Kara smiles a bright smile that makes Lucy’s heart give a light flutter. Kara pretends as though she doesn’t hear the flutter of the other woman’s heart, and Kara nearly forgets to answer the question.

“Right! Yeah, I’m Kara. Zo-, um Danvers that is. Nothing else, nope.” Kara laughs nervously and mentally slaps herself for the near slip-up. She cleared her throat, trying not to think about why her pulse had quickened, instead focusing on showing Lucy her new office. The blonde turns and gestures to her companion to follow her as she walks to the General Counsel’s vacant office. Opening the glass door, Kara waves the brunette into the glass office, entering after her. “So this is your office, and um basically this is the important floor. I mean, you know Cat’s office is here, and yours . . .” Kara trails off. 

“Of course this is the important floor, I mean whose desk could be more important than yours?” Lucy smiles up at the woman who was as bright and cheery as her clothes, and Lucy hopes that the two of them could become friends. Kara laughs and Lucy guesses that is a good sign. 

“You could look at it that way.” Kara managed to get out once she was almost done giggling. Lucy sighed as she shook her head at the girl’s antics before standing taller and dropping her hands from her new desk to her side. 

“So Kara Danvers, where are we off to next? What other parts of the castle must I see? Does the Queen of All Media have dungeons where she locks up those who irritate her? Actually, I don’t want to know, plausible deniability and all that.” Lucy lets her nervous side escape a little bit as she uses hand motions, although they are not nearly as energetic as the blonde’s. Lucy is then led out of her office and into the bullpen once more.

“Well, this is the top floor, as you’ve guessed. I figure we can work our way down and then depending on what time it is, I’ll have to make sure Ms. Grant gets her lunch order, but um maybe you’d like to . . . I don’t know, grab lunch afterward?” Kara gestures wildly as the pair approaches the elevator and Lucy is nodding as they step inside. “I totally get it if you wouldn’t want to, but a few of us typically grab lunch together.” Kara dragged the last part of the word as she looked up and saw Lucy nodding, giving her another genuine smile. She guesses that Lucy doesn’t smile like this too often and Kara is happy to bring that smile out. 

Neither one of them breaks the silence as Kara led Lucy to the next floor and down to the senior offices. Once they step out of the elevator, Kara looks around for the Editor-In-Chief, Alison Burnes. The offices on this floor are reserved for the employees that Cat does not like, but recognizes the skill or talent of. It does not go unnoticed that Lucy already has a top floor office, and Kara wonders exactly how good of a lawyer Lucy is. The stray thought is soon forgotten as Lucy takes in the differences between the seventeenth floor and the sixteenth floor. 

Ultimately, Kara can’t find Burnes and she isn’t too worried about it. Alison Burnes is not someone Lucy will most likely ever need to speak to in a work environment, or outside of work either. On their way to the next floor down, 15, Kara and Lucy are on an elevator with Alison Burnes as well as some lower-paid employees at CatCo. Alison Burnes is not a memorable woman by most standards, despite her height. Although she is taller than most women, Kara still has a good inch on the greying lady, and Kara takes a small amount of pride in that because she knows Burnes likes being the tallest at any given point, and Burnes has never been a fair person. Unforgiving Kara can deal with, she handles Cat Grant just fine every day for fu-frick’s sake (she really needs to stop letting Alex get drunk on movie night, a drunk Alex is a profane Alex), but Kara does not like it when people play with a rigged deck. The fifteenth floor is nothing special, almost a copy of the floor above it, although Kara tells Lucy that this floor has more marketing employees than anything else, but there are two editors who work on this floor.

“Ms. Grant is great at what she does, but I still don’t know how she managed to put the Editor-In-Chief on the sixteenth floor, especially when Ms. Grant lets Winn work on the top floor.” Kara rambles slightly, turning on her heel because, if she’s being honest with herself, she’s getting hungry but she knows Lucy needs to at least see all the main floors. The main floors are the top four, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Lucy senses that the blonde is rambling a little so she lets her finish her sentence before cutting her off.

“Who’s Winn?” Lucy asks, uncertain.

“Oh, he’s one of my friends here. Well, actually he’s more like my best friend, but yeah, he’s part of the group I eat lunch with, even though there’s only three of us, well four with you here now, but don’t feel like you have to eat with us every day, it’s not like-like I’m trying to control you.” Kara settles herself, takes a few deep breaths before summarizing her word vomit. “Winn is the IT guy in the bullpen, he’s the best here. He’s also my best friend so we eat lunch together, and there’s also James, and he’s cool, although I think he’s a little obsessed with Superman . . . right, Kara, shut up.” She laughs at the end of the sentence good-naturedly, but she does wish she could stop talking and give Lucy a chance to speak.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s not like I have much to contribute here.” Lucy says, pondering her own move to National City. She had moved to finally step out from her father’s shadow and do what she wanted to. Naturally, finding a new city had been a little difficult, but when she remembered that Cat Grant lived in National City, she almost immediately decided. It wasn’t that she was trying to spite Lois, really. Lucy had just been tired of feeling like her success was due to her last name and knew Cat Grant would not treat her differently, or if she did it would only make Lucy work harder.

Pulling herself out of her internal ramblings for the second time today, Lucy noticed that they were on their way down to the lobby, which was good because Lucy was only having a good time on the tour because it was Kara. Lucy appreciates how genuine Kara seems, and she definitely appreciates the lunch invite. They’re passing the thirteenth floor when Kara says, “Yes, you do.” Admittedly it takes Lucy a good thirty seconds before she realizes what the assistant is referring to, but Kara continues on, yet manages not to concoct a giant run-on sentence this time. “I want to know why you’re here, I want to know why you picked CatCo out of all the places you could find a job with your resume.” Lucy realizes then that Kara must have scanned all of the resumes for the potential interviewees and silently thanks her for that.

“That’s very kind of you. I would love to answer your questions, but I think it’s time Cat got her lunch, don’t you think?” Lucy asks with a cheeky smirk, one that even Kara can read, saying ‘I’m not telling until you provide a good reason’ and Kara agrees because it is time for Cat’s lunch and that was why they had been heading to the lobby in the first place. Lucy follows her again to get Cat’s lunch before they deliver it and round up the boys for lunch at Noonan’s.


	2. Planning for Tomorrow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunch with the superfriends goes awry when Kara is called to save the city. To make it up to Lucy, Kara invites her to a movie night. Lucy has gay panic about this movie night and Kara checks in on her before Lucy goes home to her still-empty and undecorated apartment. This is kinda a filler chapter, but not totally. I don't know

“I’m just going to be in my office, getting a little organized, I might even take a cursory look at some cases.” Lucy explains to a confused Kara as the shorter girl walks away from her.

“Okay, I’ll get you last.” Kara says, turning around with slight reluctance, feeling the urge to watch Lucy leave, but she turns anyway. Then Kara enters Cat’s office. Kara approaches Ms. Grant with a smile on her face and doesn’t get the chance to speak before Ms. Grant looks up from her work. “Your lunch, Ms. Grant.” Kara waits patiently for Cat to reject or accept the food.

“Alright Kiera, you are free to do whatever it is you do during your lunch breaks. Now, get out of my sight.” Cat says with impatience and the tiniest hint of a smirk gracing her lips. I’m getting soft. Cat berates herself, once more looking down to her work. Honestly, I have my own children, I don’t need to worry about Kara too. Cat sighs, losing track of her place in the reading.

Kara exits the office feeling positively charged. She is excited to spend time with Lucy, and she is equally ecstatic to introduce her friends to their coworker. Placing her tablet on her desk, she steps over to Winn’s desk and he turns to face her in his chair.

“Hey, Winn. Ready for lunch?” Kara inquires brightly. Winn returns the smile.

“Of course, let me just finish this line of code and then we can get James.” Winn answers while rotating his chair and finalizing the code with quick key strokes. Then Winn closes his applications and stands up. He pushes his chair closer to his desk and gestures for Kara to lead the way. Straightening his tie, he follows the blonde and begins to fill the silence that had fallen between them. “So, uh, what do you know about the new general counsel?”

“Well, I don’t know much, I only just met her, Winn.” She says with finality, but deciding to give away a shred of information about her, Kara speaks again. “But, I do know that her name is Lucy.” As Kara opened the door to James’ office, Winn nods invisibly behind her, adding a mental folder named ‘Lucy’ that had few files inside it.

James slowly spins in his chair and puts down the layouts he was working on. He drops the pen to his desk and smile at Kara before greeting his friends verbally. “Hi Kara, hey Winn. The day absolutely flies by when you’re doing layouts, can’t believe it’s lunch already.” He gestures to the door as he begins walking towards it.

As he opens it, Kara adds an unexpected, though not out of character, fact. “I kind of invited Lucy, the new general counsel to lunch, so we have to get her too.” In the moment that James pauses to process the new information, Kara strides forward and guides the boys to Lucy’s office. The short trip to the lawyer’s office is filled with James and Winn’s questions.

Despite Kara telling Winn she didn’t know a lot about Lucy, he sends a barrage of questions worthy of the inquisition her way. He asks about why she is now working here, about her previous jobs, about how she’s doing at CatCo so far and continues to ramble to the point that Kara rolls her eyes and trains her ears on James’ line of questioning. He has similar questions, although he also asks about her attitude. Kara internally concedes the boys aren’t worth listening to, and she tries to hone in on Lucy’s office. She cannot decipher which sounds are coming from Lucy’s office over all the other white noise because the brunette was not speaking aloud. The trio is near Lucy’s door when Kara stops suddenly and turns around to face the long-winded men standing in front of her. “She is right in there, so please stop asking me about her. In about thirty seconds you will have every opportunity to ask her, instead of me. I am not an expert.” The Kryptonian fixes her friends with a quick, frustrated glare before turning around and opening the door to the general counsel’s office. “Hey Lucy, ready for lunch?” Green eyes jump from the document laid on her desk to sparkling blue ones, smiling once her brain recognizes the voice and face.

“You bet, Kara. Ms. Grant really likes her lawsuits, and they seem to like her, too.” Lucy closes the manila folder and strides to the group. She pauses to look out the windows of her office before her eyes scan the two newcomers to her office. “Are these James and Winn?”

“That’s us!” Winn announces cheerily with a small wave of his hand. “I’m Winn, and you’re Lucy right?” Winn looks nervous as he extends his hand toward the lawyer. Lucy takes his hand and gives it a firm shake before reaching to James.

“So you’re James then?” James nods. Lucy picks up her purse from her desk and then James goes to open the door so they can head down to Noonan’s. The room is silent as James opens the door and Lucy doesn’t know exactly what to do. Kara quickly adjusts her glasses as she clears her throat and steps to the door.

The group weaves their way through the desks in the bullpen. When they reach the elevator, James darts forward to press the button and begins speaking. “So Lucy, have you lived in National City for long?” As they ride the elevator down to the lobby, Lucy briefly explains that she has just gotten out of the Army and decided a move to National City would do her good.

Sitting down to eat, James asks another question, with an easy-going smile. “So Lucy, do you have a last name?”

“Lane.” Lucy states simply, green eyes locked in on James. She looks away after a beat and takes a small sip of her ice water. Kara can hear Lucy’s heart rate slowly increase as no one responds. The alien is opening her mouth to say something when Winn finds his words in a show of intelligence.

“You’re Lucy Lane? A-as in L-a-n-e lane?” Winn sputters.

“Cat Grant hired Lois Lane’s little sister?” James asks incredulously, eyebrow arching.

“Lucy was the most qualified person to apply for the job.” Kara explains after swallowing a piece of her pancake. “Ms. Grant hires the best, period. Besides Lucy isn’t her sister. She deserves to be judged on her own merits, and I assume Ms. Grant agrees.”

“She must if she agreed to hire a Lane.” Winn says, poking at a piece of ice in his lemonade with his straw.

The rest of the lunch is mostly uneventful as they talk about work and enjoy their meals, at least until Kara hears a car alarm go off, followed by at least four more in quick succession.

“I just remembered, I have that thing to go do.” Kara says as she stands up and quickly darts out of the restaurant and towards the alarms.

“What thing?” Winn asks oblivious. When James gives him a look, Winn quickly attempts to cover for his mistake. “I mean, yeah that thing.”

Lucy just has her eyebrow arched at the boys’ behavior before James turns to look at her.

“Kara sometimes has to run errands for Cat, and sometimes they require . . . discretion.” He says delicately, Lucy nods in understanding. She reasons that if she were the CEO of CatCo she would make her assistant buy her tampons, too. They all decide to pitch in for Kara’s share since she ate so much, and Winn says he’ll tell Kara that they paid for her.

“It was really nice meeting you, Lucy.” James says when the three of them walk back into CatCo. He again smiles at her and Lucy finds it charming even though it’s not going to work on her, but she gives a small smile in return anyway.

“Likewise James, and it was good to meet you too, Winn.” She turns to look at the technology expert who fiddles with his tie before responding in kind. She strides from the elevator to her office and opens the first folder placed on her desk.

Turning the page, Lucy resists the urge to frown at the complaint. She lets out a breath when she sees that this is just backlog, dated three weeks ago, and she won’t actually have to deal with, she counts the number of folders in the stack, god twenty-three cases on a daily basis.

She works for the rest of the afternoon uninterrupted and gets three cases analyzed without much difficulty and she is in such a groove that she doesn’t notice the blonde assistant until she clears her throat awkwardly in front of Lucy’s desk. Startled, Lucy can’t help but jump a little in her seat at the disturbance.  
“Hey Lucy, it’s past time you can go home, so, you’re free to go,” Kara smiles “if you want that is, you don’t have to. As long as Ms. Grant is still here you’re welcome to stay.” The kindness the blonde radiates has Lucy fighting a smile, a battle which she definitely lets herself lose. In no way was that an inevitable reaction.

“Thanks, Kara. I think I should finish this fourth case before I go. Have a good night.” She lowers her gaze back to the papers in front of her, steeling herself to go back to reading about someone who was suing CatCo for it’s glass offices. She thinks to herself, “Wow, these people are running a little short in the smarts department.” However, as soon as the thought enters her mind, she dismisses it because something more important turns up.

While the blonde moves away, she says off-handedly, “I’ll be here until Ms. Grant leaves, just so you know.” Kara hesitates once she reaches the door, turning back around to face the breath-taking lawyer. “So, you don’t really know anyone in National City, right?”

“Nope, I don’t know anyone other than the people here at Catco, all of whom I just met today.” Lucy says as her brows scrunch together for a moment. She quickly forces them apart like she knows what’s about to happen.

“How about you come over tomorrow night for a movie night? So I can make up for missing lunch?” Kara asks with a bright smile and a slight crinkle to her eyes. As Lucy thinks about the question, the blonde adjusts her glasses and fumbles with her tablet.

“You know what? That sounds like a lot of fun, actually. Saves me from having to unpack some more. Thanks, Kara.” As Kara exits the bare office, she begins mentally checking her movie collection for a good one to watch with Lucy the following night. Lucy trails the blonde ponytail with her eyes until she disappears. The files scattered on Lucy’s desk look more daunting than they did a half hour ago.

Halfway through a sentence she is scribbling on a sticky-note, Lucy panics. Is tomorrow night a date? Are other people going to be there? If so, who? How should she dress? What constitutes as too casual for a movie night? Shaking her head, Lucy forces herself to slow down. She works to bring her heart-rate closer to sixty beats per minute instead of 120? 140? She doesn’t really know, but she knows that she needs this panic attack to end.

Lucy Lane doesn’t have panic attacks, she hasn’t had one since her letter for West Point came and she would like to avoid anymore. But when Kara rushed into her office again, it nearly sets her off again.

“Lucy, is everything alright?” Kara asks, super-hearing of course alerting her to Lucy’s increased heart-rate.

“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?” Lucy asks nonchalantly. The fact that she just had a panic attack over their date, no, non-date, maybe, over their movie night is not something she wants Kara to know, yet. Especially considering the fact that Lucy isn't really sure she wants a date, isn't sure if women are her 'thing', but maybe Kara is worth the uncharted territory. Speaking of Kara...

“Oh, I just heard your-, um, well I thought I heard a squeaking sound, almost like-, a, um mouse? Maybe it was a mouse, but I thought that, you know, it could have been, maybe, in your office, so then I came over here because mice in the office are never a good thing, and I wasn’t sure if you would freak out because of a mouse. Oh yeah, right, you just got back from the Army, and your résumé said West Point, right so a mouse wouldn’t scare you, well, anyway, I’m just gonna leave now. I’ll see you tomorrow!” Kara says as she backs toward the door before scurrying away through the building and Lucy is left dumbstruck at what just transpired.

Seeing that it is almost nine, Lucy decides she should leave and go home. Staying at work feels like it would be unproductive, and that’s something Lucy hates being. So she packs up her briefcase and closes all the folders on her desk, locking them in a drawer before shutting her computer off and leaving CatCo. The bus ride home is quiet because there are only six other passengers, all of whom seem to be just as tired if not more so.

The bare apartment is dark and Lucy turns on a light so she can navigate the new space. She goes through her nightly routine, taking off makeup, brushing her teeth, and changing into a tanktop and shorts before falling soundly asleep on her mattress. Her dreams are _not_ filled with a certain blonde assistant. Therefore when she wakes up, she _isn’t_ any happier than usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it took so long. It took me six months to write + post so hahahahaha please forgive me. If you're interested in other stuff I've written, I have other fics on this website and if you'd like, you can find me on tumblr: ronnings.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> This took me like two hours to write because I don't have a beta and I refuse to post something that hasn't at least been somewhat proof-read. Also apparently writing at 1 am is harder than writing at 11 am who knew. Thanks for reading (reviews and kudos are ofc appreciated as well)


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